Published
Sat, Aug 19, 2023, 11:30
- DarkSky-4 is the first instrument from a firm out of St. Louis, Missouri.
There's a new boutique synth on the market.
DarkSky-4 is a four-voice analogue polysynth, created by an independent company called Space Brain Circuits, out of St. Louis in Missouri.
The new synth has two low-pass filters, an unusual feature that allows you to add stereo modulation to a sound—effectively a different filter sweep for the left and right channels. It also has an LFO, a detune and drift knob, plus various unison modes. The LFO runs into audio rates and can control pulse-width modulation and both filters. The envelope can also (simultaneously) control each filter and there are depth controls on all the modulation options.
DarkSky-4 is also a true polyphonic synth, in that each voice triggers a separate amp envelope, all of which then run through the two low-pass filters. It has full MIDI compatibility but also features patch points to control it with control voltage, so you can incorporate the synth into a modular set-up.
"I really wanted to create an intuitive, simple, and beautiful sounding synthesizer that is compact but also has a solid build quality," the founder of Space Brain Circuits told Resident Advisor. "I love playing with stereo movement so this was a big inspiration and focal point during design."
Space Brain Circuits has previously released a number of boxes and controllers, including the MidiVolts, which allows you to trigger multiple monosynths as if they were one big polysynth, and a barebones step sequencer, but this is the first full instrument from the company.
Each DarkSky-4 is built by hand so numbers are pretty limited. Right now they are only available directly from Space Brain Circuit's Etsy shop.
Watch a demo of DarkSky-4.
DarkSky-4 is out now, priced $599